Agenda Item 8C ______

DATE: March 4, 2021

TO: Library Board, Pima County Public Library

Pima County Board of Supervisors Pima County Administration Friends of the Pima County Public Library, Board of Directors Friends of the Arivaca Library, Board of Directors Friends of the Esmond Station Library, Board of Directors Friends of the Kirk-Bear Canyon Library, Board of Directors Friends of the Oro Valley Public Library, Board of Directors Friends of the Pima-Green Valley Library, Board of Directors Pima Library Foundation, Board of Directors

FROM: Karyn Prechtel-Altman Deputy Library Director

SUBJECT: Public Services and Community Engagement Report – February 2020 Pima County Public Library is now providing outdoor services to the greater Vail community at the W. Anne Gibson-Esmond Station Library. As I noted in this interview to Arizona Public Media https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2021/2/18/189648-vail-area-gets-pima- county-public-library-branch/ , the greater Vail community has been pining for a library for decades and the W. Anne Gibson-Esmond Station Library does not disappoint! Beautiful wall- to-wall windows with stained glass and a view to the mountains are is of the many attributes of this new library.

The 2021 Tucson Festival of Books will be held virtually on Saturday and Sunday, March 6 and 7. PCPL’s Nuestras Raíces Team has put together an incredible lineup of 15 authors at eight unique events including Viva Frida! Celebrating Frida Kahlo with authors Kathy Cano-Murillo and Arianna Davis, and It Take a Pueblo with Authors Lydia Otero and Alberto Rios.

Be sure to read the Santa Rosa Library’s report this month because it is a perfect illustration of our awesome library staff meeting community needs even while their library is officially closed and they are working at another library!

Library Services Manager - Sharla Ronstadt During this period, I assisted the new W. Anne Gibson-Esmond Station Library Manager providing support for the opening of the library. The library opened on Tuesday, February 16 with curbside services. In addition, I assisted administration and branch managers in planning conversations to determine branches that will be shifting to a Tuesday-Saturday schedule. I continued to manage staffing information spreadsheets and collecting updates from managers. This information assisted me in coordinating and shifting Substitute Librarians to libraries based on staffing need. I provided support and coaching to new managers and participated in the New Manager Training meetings. I started attending branch staff meetings to provide information and answer questions. This month I met with staff from Oro Valley Public Library, Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Library, Flowing Wells Library and the Miller-Golf Links Library.

Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 2 March 2020

Library Services Manager - Amy Rusk In honor of Black History Month, I attended two webinars through the Arizona State Museum: on February 9, Tucson’s Black Community and School Segregation, and on Feb 16, and The Spirit of Spirituals: Famous and Stirring Songs of Faith, and their Stories. Both were informative and very enjoyable. The Kindred Team has been sharing countless poems by Black authors through email; and on Friday, the team tuned into KXCI after work for a guest DJ session with Erika Gault, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Arizona, for Our Mother’s Gardens: Surrogacy in the life of Mahalia Jackson, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Breonna Taylor. This month, I also learned more about Lunar New Year and The Day of Remembrance from the Biblio Lotus team’s blogs posted on the library’s Diverse Voices page on our website.

Every day is filled with online meetings with staff, so I am constantly reminded of how fortunate I am to get to work with such thoughtful and engaged people!

Program Manager for Workforce and Economic Development – Ken Zambos Pima County Library’s Career Online High School staff is working on creating their first virtual graduation celebration! This month, 12 out of 25 graduates from the year 2020 participated in the first part of the planned celebration. Students set up individual appointments to pick up a graduation gift bag outside of Joel D. Valdez Main Library. The gift bag included a cap and gown and a career book, among other celebratory items. Our proud graduates were also given the opportunity to get their photo taken by a Career Online High School staff member with a congratulatory backdrop. The photos taken at this event will be shared during the second part of our celebration—a final graduation video that will be posted on Pima County Public Library’s website. Graduates will have the opportunity to submit contributions to this video in the form of letters, photos, and/or video recordings of them talking about their experience in the program.

Graduates expressed their excitement and gratitude to staff during the gift bag event for the library’s contribution in finishing their high school education. Some students brought their diplomas to share with staff, and others wore their cap and gown in the pictures taken to demonstrate their pride at their incredible accomplishment. The Career Online High School program expects more positivity as they continue the graduation celebration plans and welcome new students along the way.

GED programs in both English and Spanish continued throughout the month of February, supporting adult learners in their pursuit of their high school equivalency diploma. Job Help programs also continued throughout the month in both English and Spanish, providing assistance with resume writing, completing online applications, and interview preparation for job seekers.

District 1 – Supervisor Rex Scott

Dewhirst–Catalina Library – Christine Dykgraaf Dewhirst Catalina Library continues to grow its patron’s base. Staff issue new library cards on average one-four a week and are eager to list the many services the library provides regarding materials, online resources, and entertainment despite Covid-19 restrictions. As many times a week staff receive comments such as “Thank you for all you do, you are keeping me sane!” or “I am just so happy to come here and get more books. You all are golden.” That does much to lift the spirits of the staff.

During closure to the public, Dewhirst-Catalina Library staff have been able to conduct a deep cleaning and organizing of office materials, workspaces, and supplies. The collections themselves have never looked better for staff having the time to look over condition and do Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 3 March 2020 basic maintenance on heavily used but adored items. Several staff are now participating on virtual programing teams and so are helping patrons much further afield than in the past.

Dusenberry-River Library – Matías Torres Holds pickup at the door and curbside continues at Dusenberry-River Library. We continue to encounter patrons incredibly grateful for the convenience of being able to patronize their local branch. Valet services with printing, copying and faxing remains steady with staff interceding with technology instruction when necessary.

Dusenberry-River staff remains committed to library services. Librarians curated comprehensive displays for Black History Month to go alongside book bundles and craft kits. Library staff diligently handled an increase in book traffic following expiration of system wide extended due dates. Ahead of moderating author interview at Tucson Festival of Books, Young Adult Librarian participated in training session on best practices in overseeing teen volunteer interviewers.

Oro Valley Public Library – Pam Park As the cooler weather brings in more winter visitors, Oro Valley is seeing an uptick in new library card sign ups and a higher number of checkouts. Curbside service is at a very high volume with patrons eagerly waiting every morning to pick up their holds. Oro Valley is circulating on average 575 items daily. Children’s Book Bundles remain popular. This month Oro Valley Library began handing out AARP tax packets to patrons. There has been a brisk interest in this form of tax help as well as the information we’ve provided about the United Way’s VITA tax assistance. Patrons who have been accustomed to in-person tax help at the library have expressed gratitude for this service. Virtual programming at the branch continues with the Sonoran Sleuths book club, which has consistently high attendance with 20-22 people attending each monthly meeting. Various staff are involved in system-wide and countywide teams such as online reader’s advisory, the Seed Library and a County program to address diabetes. The annual building walkthrough with Pima County and Town of Oro Valley takes place in February to evaluate the condition of the facility.

Wheeler Taft Abbett, Sr. Library – Meggin Kitterman Despite the closed doors, staff at Wheeler Taft Abbett, Sr. Library continued to connect customers to valuable community and library services. Handing out AARP tax packets, printing tax forms and distributing VITA tax service flyers ensured customers knew about free tax help offered by community partners. Staff answered calls on the vaccine registration line to help customers without internet or computers get in line for a vaccination. Educators and families sustained learning at home and school with library books, Grab and Go activities and information about the Learn at Home page of the PCPL website.

Customers continue to voice appreciation for staff and the library saying, “we couldn’t survive without you” and “of all the places that have closed, I miss the library the most.” One grateful customer was so excited to be able to pick up seeds from the seed library that she wants to donate masks to library staff. After Wheeler Taft Abbett, Sr. Library staff redesigned the workflow to improve customer service, a customer commented on the improvements “It was awesome, and as soon as I arrived I was greeted by a very friendly staff member who came to the window. Not only did she pick up my holds for me she actually had a conversation with me….thank you for the great customer service.”

District 2 – Supervisor Matt Heinz

Eckstrom-Columbus Library – Lu Guerrero Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 4 March 2020

Eckstrom-Columbus Library continues to provide printing, faxing, copying, and holds pick-up at the door for customers. The library also offers, daily snacks and family food packs in partnership with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. For February, the library also distributed 75 boxes of fresh produce, provided by the food bank. In addition to this, the library has assisted AARP in the distribution of tax aide packets, which have been highly requested by the community.

Sam Lena–South Tucson Library – Kelly Wilson Here at Sam Lena-South Tucson we have been busy packing and labeling our warm weather seeds for distribution through the seed library. We processed over 5,000 packs of seeds this month to get into the soil of our local gardeners. We also served hundreds of snacks and provided valet print, fax and copy services to hundreds of our community members. Our generous partners at PPEP distributed weekly Federal food boxes to families in need through our library, helping to keep South Tucson strong during these difficult times.

Santa Rosa Library – Ivonne Ramirez Santa Rosa Library’s contribution to outreach and education on social media via Wear Red Friday for heart health month was a success, and had the highest reach for the month on the Santa Rosa Library Facebook Page. The short video post featured heart health facts and photos of the Santa Rosa Library staff wearing red in an engaging and interactive format.

In February, Santa Rosa Library continued its collaboration with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona to provide the children’s afterschool snack program as well as the Agency Market food pantry program. Santa Rosa Library’s contactless food distribution program serves as one of the busiest food distribution locations from among the Pima County Public Library sites, serving an average of 130 units a day. We expect the total number of snack packets and pantry items distributed at Santa Rosa Library for the month of February to surpass 2,500.

As a special treat for the Valentine’s Day, the Santa Rosa Library team included activity books provided by Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona with the grab-n-go snack packets. These activity books were distributed to children in a special holiday bag with the afterschool snacks on Friday February 12th. Parents who picked up the packets shared positive feedback on having a special packet for their kids with creative learning activities, and the children who stopped by to pick up their own snack were excited for the extra goodies.

Santa Rosa Library continued its engagement with community partner Santa Rosa Head Start through the month of February by creating a recorded STEAM activity for kids to feature in the Santa Rosa Head Start virtual Parent Night on Zoom. This fun learning activity—constructing monkey puppets using paper bags—created an opportunity for the preschool students and their parents to engage in a collaborative project to support their child’s early development of fine motor skills and develop early math and science concepts.

District 3 – Supervisor Sharon Bronson, Chair

Salazar-Ajo Library – Richard Guinn The Salazar-Ajo Library has been able to continue to assist library patrons at the entry of the library building. Our printing services continue to be utilized as well as many of our patrons who continue to place holds on items. We have also gone forward re-establishing our window browsing option so that patrons can see the latest items from outside.

These are very uncertain times. However, the staff at the Salazar-Ajo branch remain committed to serving their community and to expanding our library services and availability.

Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 5 March 2020

Woods Memorial Library – Em Lane Woods Memorial Library continues to see a weekly increase in circulation and valet services (copying, faxing, and wireless printing) as well as snack distribution (provided from both Amphitheater School District and the Community Food Bank.) We have received bi-weekly produce boxes from the Community Food Bank, delivered by the National Guard, and customers have been greatly appreciative. Income tax packets prepared by staff with VITA and AARP resources have been popular and are another invaluable resource for customers. We continue to provide young children and families various Grab-N-Go from PCPL’s Learn at Home Initiative, Pima County’s Natural Resources Parks & Recreation, and a unique kit about growing saguaro seedlings in conjunction with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Arizona Public Media. We have also continued staffing the Vaccine Pre-Registration phone line as needed.

On Wednesday February 10, Ernesto Portillo from the Ward 3 office interviewed Woods Memorial Library Assistant Manager Matt Landon on the Thrive in the 05 Resource Café. The Thrive in the 05 Resource Café is a weekly webcast that highlights community partners and resources available to the community during the Covid-19 pandemic, centered around the 85705 zip code. It's produced by the ASU Office of Community Health, Engagement and Resiliency. Matt talked about library services during Covid and highlighted both PCPL's online Job Help programming and an upcoming book discussion on Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. The discussion is for county and city employees as well as local community service agency employees. The goal is to better understand the housing crisis and effectively manage our response as valuable partners in serving the community. You can view the interview here: Website link: https://www.thriveinthe05.com/calendar/2021/2/10/resource-caf-with-pima-county- library Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=240122654470951

District 4 – Supervisor Steve Christy

Joyner-Green Valley Library – Victoria Salajko Library business is booming here at the Joyner-Green Valley Library. We saw a 45% increase in the number of patrons visiting each day for holds pick-up at our location. Our library also processed, packed, and coordinated the delivery of 58 boxes of donated children’s books to our community partners through the Many Nations team. Our branch has also begun a spring cleaning of our collection, which involves searching for damaged books, and double-checking the shelves for accurate item placement.

Joyner-Green Valley Library has also been participating in the system-wide Grab & Go Snack program. The snacks we provide have been flying out the door faster than we can receive fresh supplies. This encouraged us to reach out to the community food banks in our area, in order to build new relationships, and explore ways to partner and support the community together.

Miller-Golf Links Library – Kassy Rodeheaver The Miller-Golf Links Library has been celebrating Black History Month with its community through a successful outdoor book display for all ages. For months, our community members have enjoyed having access to our Lucky Day books that were wheeled outside on a book cart behind our holds pick up tables. Our staff saw how popular this method of finding a new book was so we expanded the offerings by selecting books written or illustrated by Black creators and added a new sign to highlight the items. We have seen dozens of these books that focus on Black characters, experiences, and history checked out by our customers. We are working to continually keep these items available on the outdoor cart throughout the month.

Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 6 March 2020

Additionally, we continue to hand out the very popular Grab N Go Learn at Home activities for children in our walk-up and contactless holds pick up services. Customers continue to come to us for printing and faxing services related to job help, social services, and for vital communications related to health and consumer protections.

Murphy-Wilmot Library – Kathy Konecny Murphy-Wilmot has handed out hundreds of AARP tax packets to our customers. Once the customers complete the packet, they call the AARP for an appointment at a non-library location. Both the AARP and our customers have expressed appreciation for this important service.

In February, Murphy-Wilmot staff was excited to begin providing produce from the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. As soon as the National Guard delivered the boxes, customers began taking the food home. We handed out hundreds of pounds of produce including tomatoes, squash, poblano chilies, tomatillos, zucchini and bell peppers. We are grateful to help our community in this way.

W. Anne Gibson Esmond Station – Mary McKinney Tuesday, February 16 was opening day for this brand new library. How exciting it was that the first patron was a familiar face, a frequent patron from Miller-Golf Links Library. Her extremely jubilant reaction to the new library finally being open and to being patron #1 was just perfect! She clapped and yelled and cheered with glee.

Pima County staff continue to come in to complete final touches as the new building and the staff within find their stride. All first-time visitors are taken with the view and the wall of windows. If they are library staff, shortly thereafter, their eyes fall on the brand new collection, and they’re hooked!

District 5 – Supervisor Adelita Grijalva

El Pueblo Library – Irina Delone-Wilton While El Pueblo Library continues to be closed, staff continue to be a major support to the Valencia Library as they are helping provide curbside service and food distribution at that location. Additionally, El Pueblo staff are distributing much needed food at El Pueblo Library in the afternoons for a couple of hours.

Joel D. Valdez Main Library – Tenecia Phillips Main Library staff continue to work with the Pima County Health Department to assist the public in signing up for their COVID-19 vaccination appointments over the phone. Since the implementation of the Vaccine Registration phone line, more than 10,000 calls have been received. These calls can range from needing assistance to pre-register for the COVID-19 vaccine to asking for recent updates about vaccine distribution county and statewide. Staff work diligently to remain up to date with the latest news from the Pima County Health Department as well as the Arizona Department of Health Services. This service is clearly one that our community wants and needs; even with additional help, phone lines are often busy all day.

Martha Cooper Library – Tara Foxx-Lupo Starting this month the Martha Cooper Library piloted the launch of the Skill Sheets Project. Created by our Learn at Home Team, Skill sheets are one-two page documents, each of which explains a key concept or strategy related to math, reading, and/or language arts. The primary audience for these tools are families of learners in the K-12 grades, especially those who might normally seek reading or homework help. There are both English and Spanish versions of the skill sheets currently available for pick-up at Martha Cooper and Columbus Libraries, and electronic copies will be available on line soon. Library Deputy Director’s Report – Public Services Page 7 March 2020

Food programming continues to be a needed and appreciated resource here at Martha Cooper. The branch recently increased the number of snacks we request to accommodate increased demand. In addition to the snacks, Martha Cooper is one of a number of locations able to provide free produce in partnership with the Community Food Bank, local farmers and the National Guard. Many are grateful to take a box, whether for their own household or to share with neighbors.

Richard Elías-Mission Library – Alina Rowe We have seen a steady patron presence for valet services, Grab-N-Go Super Snacks, and holds pickup throughout the month of February. Our expertly curated book bundles remain a popular option for acquiring materials while in person browsing is suspended. We continue to receive daily tax assistance inquiries both in person and by phone. After sharing options with a patron, Adult Services Librarian, Jana Bonfield, was told, “You’re the best. I’ve tried everywhere to find out what to do and you’re the first person to tell me.”

Our Children’s Services Librarian participated in Love of Reading Month outreach at Lynn/Urquides Elementary School. She recorded videos to be shown in each classroom that included book talks and a read aloud. Promotional materials were also sent.

On February 18, the Pima County Assessor set up outside of the library to provide individuals with assistance completing Valuation Relief Exemption forms. Library staff fulfilled the Assessors’ and their customers’ copying and faxing needs. We also assisted patrons over the phone in the weeks leading up to the event to ensure they had all the necessary documentation. The Assessor’s office helped 18 customers fill out their forms and send in the necessary documentation at our location.

Southwest Library – Angie Grischkowsky Southwest Library remains closed for the time being, with staff dispersed to Mission and other branches to offer additional support. We look forward to a time when we can be back, directly serving our neighborhood and community again!

Valencia Library – Paulina Aguirre-Clinch Valencia staff provided outreach services via Zoom to Pistor Middle School classes. Staff provided students with information about getting a library card and current library services, including databases useful for their studies and homework help. Collaborated with the County’s Health Department to bring Mobile COVID Testing to the Valencia Library Community on a Saturday. The Valencia Library is in a COVID hot zone with a high need for testing. Assisted in assembling 120 Grab-n-Go Kits for a last minute collaboration with AZPM, the Desert Museum, and Children’s Museum in celebration of SciFest at the Children’s Museum. The kits will be distributed at several branches including Valencia.

Nico and I presented to five 8th grade classes at Pistor Middle School. We had a difficult time getting in to the classes at first, but the teacher was able to contact Tech Support at TUSD and they gave us access. We talked to the students about their closest library locations, how to get a library card, placing holds, many online resources, and what services the libraries offer at this time. We used a pigeon mask and a long gray wig to add some fun. The students were asking us “Are you a spy for the government?” “I wish I could live the bird life” “Ms. Pigeon, if the libraries are closed can I still return my books?” They were also impressed with our technology after we demonstrated a phone call to the library with a pen and a stapler, saying that we obviously had the newest iPhone. They were excited that all of our resources were free and asked follow up questions about getting library cards. While we didn’t get to interact much, it was great to share some information and joke around with the students.